Editor:
Conserving water is not enough to fend off our impending crisis. You can empty a bucket with an eye-dropper or kick it over, either way, it will stay empty if there is no water to refill it and the County of Ventura is doing nothing to create a new supply of potable water. All they are doing is praying for rain.
As a boots-on-the-ground, lifelong, environmentalist, I never liked the idea of desalinating ocean water, but then, I never expected the Climate Crisis to grow as rapidly as it has, so I have changed my mind on the subject. Desalinization needs to start now. I know it can be expensive and can have negative impacts on the environment if not controlled but what is the expense and environmental impact if we run out of water? If you hated seeing people fighting over a roll of toilet paper, wait till you see what they will do over a bottle of water.
Ventura County could easily follow the lead of the plants in Carlsbad and soon-to-be Huntington Beach which are designed to produce over 50 million gallons of drinking water per day. Both projects were developed in partnership with Posiedon Water who are always looking for new projects to start. Posiedon works on a Public-Private Partnership model where they play a lead role in identifying and optimizing the allocation of risk among all parties, thus mitigating some of the county’s need for research while lowering the upfront cost of such a project.
Respectfully,
John Darling-Ventura
Advice is given freely because so much of it is worthless.
~ James Geary
